Light cycle oil (hereinafter also referred to as “LCO”), which is a cracked light oil produced in a fluid catalytic cracker, contains a large amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and has been used as a light oil or a heavy oil. However, in recent years, investigations have been conducted into the possibilities of obtaining, from LCO, monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (such as benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene), which can be used as high-octane gasoline base stocks or petrochemical feedstocks, and offer significant added value.
For example, Patent Documents 1 to 3 propose methods that use zeolite catalysts to produce monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contained in large amounts within LCO and the like.